1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates generally to bath tubs, more specifically to devices associated with bath tubs, and most particularly to such devices intended to sound an alarm activated by the water in a bath tub attaining a predetermined level therein
2. General Background
The drawing of a bath is a routine familiar to most inhabitants of the U.S.A wherein a private bath tub has been a commonplace luxury for decades. Many people prefer a shower to a bath, particularly as a part of a morning routine preparatory to dressing for the day, for various reasons including exigencies of time. A bath requires time to draw, in opposition to a shower, which may commence as soon as the temperature of the water has been satisfactorily adjusted. A bath tub, however, requires at least several minutes after adjustment of the water temperature to fill to a suitable level for bathing.
Many other people prefer baths over showers on a daily basis. And many people who routinely shower in the morning preparatory to dressing and commonly rush off to work who haven't even several minutes for drawing a proper bath still appreciate a nice hot soak in a bath upon other occasions. A hot bath is generally appreciated by adults as a relaxing and enjoyable pleasure and for many a bath constitutes a therapeutic activity, quite aside from the cleansing obtained thereby.
But the drawing of a bath requires some time which many cannot spare in their morning routine and which others simply find to be tedious. Standing or sitting alongside a bath tub filling is perhaps inherently annoying because one desires it to be full and cannot expedite its filling by any means. Typically one has undressed prior drawing a bath and desires only to enjoy the bath. The predicament is not unlike waiting for the kettle to boil when desirous of a hot cup of tea or coffee. The difference however, in this analogy, is that the kettle possesses a whistle while the bath does not.
The bath, lacking any means of signalling or indicating to one sufficiently remote from the tub to have lost a view of the water level therein, demands watching and, hence, one's proximity. Unfortunately there is normally little else one requires or desires doing within a bathroom while waiting for the tub to fill other than entering the filled tub. One would like, perhaps, to brew a cup of tea or coffee in the meantime, have a muffin or attend to some other task in another room such as the kitchen, which is invariably remote from the bathroom. To do so while drawing a bath, however, to leave the tub while it is filling, is to invite domestic disaster as many bath tubs require more time to attain a level suitable for bathing than do the same tubs require to overflow after reaching the desired level.
The ability of an unattended bath tub to overflow is perhaps well known. Although the tub is typically equipped with an overflow drain the opening of the same is often woefully undersized and ill equipped to handle the full flow available to the bath tub. The reasons for this are not wholly clear though conjecture suggests that historical development as well as certain practical considerations are responsible. Historically, bath tubs have decreased in volume at the same time that water pressure, and the rate of available flow, have increased rather dramatically. The larger capacity of water heaters today as opposed to those typical of a residence forty years ago is another factor. The overflow drain, however, perhaps by force of habit, has not increased in size.
Alternatively, if the overflow drain were large enough to accommodate the full flow of water from a modern system, the drain would no longer possess a size which would readily fit conventional tubs or perhaps the drain pipe typically utilized while a sufficiently enlarged overflow drain might overwhelm a typical drain pipe. The water drains by virtue of gravity. The water filling the tub is supplied under pressure. Unless the drain pipe is enlarged considerably over that typically utilized the full flow commonly utilized in filling a tub might overwhelm the capacity of the drain to remove the excess. One might adjust the flow of the water into the tub to a lower rate which the overflow drain could accommodate, but this would rather defeat the purpose, as the time to draw the bath would be increased several fold.
The consequences of overfiling a bath vary with the degree of overflow which is commensurate with the time one has left the bath overfilling. At the minimum an amount of water upon the floor sufficient to soak a bath mat and requiring additional means of mopping up is concerned. Given a little more time a significant amount of water damage readily results. The extent of water damage achievable varies as well. The walls of the room beneath an overflowed bath may need repainting, or resurfacing, or replacement. Serious structural damage is not out of the question. In short, overflowing a bath is at minimum a nuisance and at worst a minor catastrophe and quite expensive.
Given the annoyance associated with filling and the nuisance and potential for damage caused by overflowing a bath tub, one might wonder why there is no device available which would simply sound an alarm upon achieving the desired level of water in the tub. The matter seems, on its surface, a simple one. But there have been, as evidenced below in discussion of the pertinent prior art, many attempts at achieving such a device. Consideration of these devices and the underlying principles to the same yields, if one will permit, a depth to the matter unforeseen to the casual eye.